The present invention relates to gaming systems, and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus for encouraging play at gaming machines, and other types of non-machine gaming locations, by awarding bonuses to players based on the extent of player activity at the gaming location or other criteria.
Gaming machines offer various awards for play, including a cash award, a point award convertible to cash, a complementary award convertible to goods or services (e.g., food or lodging), but typically not to cash, and an award of a play of a bonus game. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,647 (Boushy, issued Jun. 2, 1998) describes the award of points and complementaries. U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,567 describes an award of a secondary game.
The prior art discloses bonus awards of various types. For example, in one type of bonus promotion, a bonus pool is developed from a percentage of coins played on a group of gaming machines. This pooled amount is awarded as a bonus to the player who obtains a designated reel combination.
Another type of bonus promotion is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,445 in which a preset amount of money is awarded at a randomly selected gaming machine after a certain number of coins have been played throughout the casino.
The '445 patent discloses another type of bonus promotion which involves an award upon a random number of coins being played throughout the casino. The “mystery” number of coins needed to trigger the bonus award is randomly selected, within a range, prior to the promotion. The winner of the promotion is the player whose coin caused the threshold to be met of the total number of coins throughout the casino that needed to be played.
The '445 patent describes another type of bonus promotion in which the jackpot amount awarded for conventional play is changed to a multiple of the jackpot amount for that gaming machine. This multiple jackpot award occurs for a small period of time, about 60 seconds, and is initiated by the insertion of a special card in a designated card reader.
The '445 patent describes a “welcome back” bonus which grants a player half price wagering at a later time, if the player wagers a certain amount of money. For example, if the player wagers $600, then the player is allowed $8.00 of half price wagering the following day.
The '445 patent describes a personal progressive bonus. This bonus allows the player to play on several different gaming machines and still allow the bonus to be obtained. The player uses a player card to permit the system to track the player's contribution to the player's own person progressive bonus amount. This amount then is eligible to be won only by the player.
Another type of bonus promotion is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,445 in which a selected reel combination of the gaming machine is used as a trigger event for a bonus award. During a predetermined period of time, an initial bonus amount is continuously decremented in value until one of the players is first to obtain the particular reel combination.
However, none of the foregoing patents provides to a player a tier of rewards based on the player's activity at many different game locations during a period of time. This deficiency may decrease the level of interest in play (i) due to the player's inability to compete with himself or herself in pursuit of an award, or (ii) due to the potential that another player will win the award caused in part by the player's gaming actions. This invention addresses the problems presented by the foregoing patents and provides a solution.